


Neighbors

by realfakedoors



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Gem Fusion, Gen, One Year Later, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Short & Sweet, Spoilers for Episode: s05e23-24 Reunited, Steven trying his best, That's a pun do you get it?, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 03:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15404040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realfakedoors/pseuds/realfakedoors
Summary: One year after "Reunited," takes place, Steven has a lot going on now that he's got some new neighbors. He's trying his best to keep up with it all.A series of one-shots taking place at least one-year-after Reunited. Each chapter will focus on different characters. Sometimes ships, sometimes just usual domestic fluff, mostly just good feels!





	Neighbors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's story time? But it's three in the morning!

If you told Steven Universe that exactly one year ago, he would have actual _neighbors_ \- as in, literal, geographically-close residents who lived within shouting distance - he might have laughed. A hopeful laugh, of course, but certainly one colored by disbelief.

Now, with a barn at the end of the beach, a stolen-ship-turned-home for the Off-Colors, and a structural addition to the Beach House itself, the coastal shores of Beach City didn’t seem quite so lonesome, and that wistful dream had become a sort of chaotic reality.

It was a constant bustle of family and friends now, but in the best sort of way. Centi had joined the Off-Colors, loving the familiarity of Homeworld tech, and Bismuth constructed herself a forge beside the barn, lodging with Peridot and Lapis when she wasn’t working with her hands. Lars bounced back and forth between living with his parents and staying with his crew, more-or-less a reflection of his mood swings, and Connie and Pearl had developed an in-house training studio that branched off from the kitchen, extending all the way up to the unused hand of the Temple fusion.

There was even a large stretch of sand that Bismuth had, perhaps a bit begrudgingly, agreed to smooth out and create a sort of flat-pavement that acted as a landing-pad for friendly ships. Steven specifically requested it be at least large enough to host _one_ Diamond Arm Ship at a time.

Sure, there were complications and strains on the relationships of those now residing on Earth and those still active and loyal to Homeworld, and there were a lot of actions that were not about to be forgiven with the drop of a hat. A war had still raged, and gems were still lost. _A lot of them_. Even more had been forced to fuse, shards torn from themselves and woven back together in a messy quilt of pain and confusion. The Cluster had taken on a sort of unintentional symbol of Crystal Gem solidarity, and in particular, a mark against the Diamond’s ability to be cruel.

As such, none of the Crystal Gems were exactly interested in “hugging and making up,” but Steven also recognized that he had responsibilities to both planets now. He was an unwitting diplomat, and if the Diamond’s wanted to try to improve their relationship with the Gems and humans who resided on Earth, he was more than happy to play the part of mediator.

That all being said, right now, Steven was _tired._ Lying in bed, ready to sleep for the next three years, he wasn’t even sure if “tired” could even begin to describe how absolutely _exhausted_ he was.

One week ago, they celebrated Garnet’s first anniversary. (Well, first _official_ anniversary - it’s not like Ruby and Sapphire hadn’t spent the last several thousand years together). Naturally, Steven had basically blocked out five-solid days of fun activities planned for Ruby and Sapphire and Garnet, depending on the situation. And of course, on the official one-year mark, they had to have a party to celebrate.

It should go without saying that, if Steven was planning it, then there was going to be cake and plenty of flowers, and tons of dancing, all of which was reason enough to be happy, but there had been so much _more_ than just that. The guest list they had was… well, it was _unbelievable._ Steven had never expected his life to be so crowded, and for it to be so filled with _love_ , and for him to be lucky enough to watch it all come together so beautifully. Thinking about the past few days, Steven couldn’t keep himself from smiling as each memory flittered past as he drifted in and out of sleep.

Blue balloons and red confetti, silhouetted against the sinking sun as Ruby and Sapphire spun in circles and became a flash of warmth, the color of joy and light of love taking form as a smiling Garnet, hugging herself. Amethyst nudging him and pointing to Uncle Andy and Greg arm wrestling, and the pair of them laughing until they were breathless when she shapeshifted her arm under the table and swept it out from the two grown men, sending them tumbling to the sand. Then there was Connie, arriving just in time for him to start to wonder where she was, and she had worn such a pretty yellow dress, reminding him of of sunshine at midday. It had seemed so soft against her brown skin when they danced. He and Pearl had set up all the decorations together, and he allowed himself to feel proud when she remarked that he might have grown a little.

And even before that, in the few days before, there had been so much _more_ that happened. It all sort of blurred together as he thought about it. More memories. Stevonnie meeting the Mahshewarans, Uncle Andy and Bismuth trading war stories, Lapis snickering as she splashed water up to a fuming Doc and Army, Barb teaching the Rutile Twins poker (and then, watching them consequently thrash Greg in a few rounds), Pearl brewing tea for Vidalia and Amethyst, Fluorite smiling as Jenny chattered in her ear, and Ronaldo --

 “Umm, Steven?” A quiet, shy sounding voice interrupted. He hadn’t realized until just then, but he must have closed his eyes at some point, floating somewhere along the edges of sleep. He opened them and turned his head to the side.

“Oh, hey, Leggy.” He sat up and stretched his arms over his head, yawning. It was dark in the house, and it looked and sounded like he was the only one around at the moment. The clock on the microwave read 2:55 AM. “Is everything okay?”

“Um, oh, yes! Yes, it’s all, ah, fine.” She huffed a bit, which suggested otherwise. “I just, um… can we read in the, umm, living room? Everyone in the ship is being sort of... loud.”

Steven raised a brow, but he nodded and wore a bright smile. “Oh, well, of course! Who’s _we_?”

As if an answer to his question, an equally short head poked around Leggy’s shoulder, and a warm smile greeted him.

“I predict Steven will be asleep.”

“Oh, Padparadscha, hi,” he said with a little laugh. “I didn’t know you were friends with Leggy.”

“Ah, oh, um well - well we really only just sort of, ah, met. At um, Garnet’s, at her party, I guess, and --”

Padparadscha cut her off, but with the sweetest tone imaginable. “Hello to you too, Steven. Ruby and I would love to read here if that would be acceptable.”

“Of course, Paddy,” he grinned, not at all bothered to repeat himself. “What are you guys reading?”

“Oh, heh, well. I found Pad, uh, trying to read this,” Leggy paused and held up a familiar cover, one of the many books belonging to Steven’s _No Home Boys_ collection. “She said um, that she wanted to read it, but she can’t really do that on her own and I…”

When the red gem hesitated, seeming a little embarrassed, Steven cocked his head to one side and looked at the orange gem. “Wait, really?”

“Oh, well, Ruby has been so kind as to read me these _No Home Boys_ books. Captain Lars said you liked them, so I thought I would give them a try.” Padparadscha grasped Leggy's arm, laying one hand on the book cover.

It was a little difficult for him to tell, the only light in the house coming from the pale moonlight by his window, but Steven could have sworn Leggy’s cheeks were burnt a few shades darker red than normal.

“Ah- ah, oh, well, it’s uh, it’s not a pro-problem! I like to read, and um, ah,” she seemed to run out of words, instead opting to hold the book up to block her face from view.

Padparadscha scowled, and she spoke a bit more softly when she addressed Steven. “Ah, well, yes and no. It’s... easier for me to listen than read on my own,” She paused, and looked down almost sadly. “I sometimes… my vision makes it a little difficult. I can get lost or confused easily.”

“Oh, well,” Steven frowned for a moment, contemplating this new information. “I guess I can see that. Well, I’m sure it must be nice if Leggy can read to you. If you guys don’t mind just keeping your voices down?”

“Ah! Ah of course!” Leggy almost dropped the book, nodding hurriedly. She looked at Padparadscha with a huge smile, who was still watching Steven with thin lips. “Right! Okay. Let’s, um, right. We’ll just, uh, be downstairs?”

Steven and Leggy remained quiet for several seconds, waiting for Padparadscha’s answer.

It came as a quiet, loving little giggle. “Of course! Thank you, Steven!”

He released a small laugh of his own and rolled back over in the covers, feeling a little bit too awake to immediately go back to bed sleep. After a brief moment of fabric moving and a little “hmm!” from over the side of the stairs, he heard Leggy begin to speak in a hushed tone.

> “...And now that they had settled on a new route, the boys began to prepare themselves for another bitterly cold winter. In the course of one week, the chill from Autumn turned biting, settling deep in the train cars. It left them both to shiver for hours before they could fall asleep each night. Winter, they had learned, was the hardest of months for travel, living their lives on the rails…”

A murmur broke Leggy’s narration, though it was barely audible. “Oh, how _awful_.”

“Yes,” Steven heard the red gem agree before picking back up the story.

> “Sasha, the greyhound that had joined them at the last stop, didn’t seem to mind the frosty air as much. “Maybe it’s that extra fur you’ve got, girl” the older of the boys remarked in a hushed, definitely jealous, tone. He pet her absently while waiting for another restless night of sleep to come.
> 
> The dog whined slightly when he stopped and she nudged closer to him. Ian couldn’t complain, for she was warm and a good source of company in the late nights. Along the hay bale, he could see James roll --”

“Wait,” Padparadscha stopped her, though not unkindly - almost curiously. “A grey… hound?”

“Oh, ah, I think it’s a… um, dog?” Leggy explained. “Like the one the, um, Captain showed you last week, I think. Remember?”

Steven listened to a long moment of silence but for a slight adjustment from the cushions below. Eventually, a tiny sound of understanding came.

“ _Oh!_ ”

Amused, and admittedly, a little invested in the story now himself, Steven was careful to be very silent while he got up from his sheets and crept over the side of his room. He peeked over the edge to see the two gems sitting beside each other, Leggy with the book in her lap and Padparadscha sitting with her dress folded under her, staring at the red gem intently.

> “Along the hay bale, he could see James roll over in his sleep. What Ian saw saddened him. Instead of the peaceful blank smile of a kid, James was frowning and fidgeting in his sleep. Ian wondered if he looked like that in his sleep; he bet he did, and wished he didn’t.
> 
> “C’mhere, girl,” the teen said, standing and grabbing the dog around her middle. She didn’t protest as Ian sat her down beside James, watching her curl into a ball at the boy’s side.
> 
> With a whisper, Ian gave Sasha a quick kiss on the head. “Keep James warm, ya here?”
> 
> When Ian returned to his make-shift cot and tried for some sleep, he still shivered and felt the hairs on his arms stand on end when a sudden breeze managed its way through the train grates, but he felt a warmth on the inside, a deep satisfaction that carried him to his dreams.”

Steven had settled onto the wooden floorboards, and the two gems below seemed so engrossed in the story that they didn’t even notice the creak and strain of as he sprawled out on his stomach, head on his arms as he peered just over the side of his bedroom. It didn’t take long for him to figure out they were reading _Mystery Train_ , his second favorite of the series.

Padparadscha held up a hand between them, and Leggy watched her carefully.

“Ruby?” She said, her voice a light as a breath of air. “Do you think James will be okay?”

Leggy frowned down at the pages momentarily, but when she looked back to the orange gem, she smiled.

“He uh, may get cold. I think he will. But that’s okay, because, he has Ian, to, ah, watch after him. I think Ian may be the, uh, one to need a little more… help. We can find out if we keep reading?”

Padparadscha didn’t answer immediately, but when she did, the small gem scooted a little bit closer on the couch and put a hand on the little red one nearest to her that was holding the book.

“You’re warm, like Sasha. Is this okay? If I sit this close to you?”

“U-um, um, ah, s-sure? If you - if you w-want,” Leggy managed, barely, and Steven felt himself grinning as they interlocked fingers. It was taking every ounce of his self-control not to squeal in excitement.

“Yes. Please, keep reading,” the unassuming seer encouraged.

They went on like that for a little while longer, Leggy never making it more than half a page before Padparadscha had to stop her with some burning question, and Steven had to say he was impressed with Leggy’s knowledge - she answered almost all of the little orange gem’s questions with accurate information. He had half-a-mind to wonder how she learned as much as she did, but then, he was sort of psuedo-spying on them at it was nearly four in the morning. He was content to just listen and not interrupt them.

Unfortunately, they were getting to the hardest part of the story.

> “...No, wait!” James cried, but Ian held him back by the shoulders. Sasha was running towards them, but the train was already pulling away. They stood at the doors of the boxcar as she sauntered after them, barking as they easily out-paced her.
> 
> Ian grabbed the younger boy and wretched him backwards with all his might, trying to keep him from jumping. And he was successful, throwing James back into his knapsack just in time, At some point, Ian noticed his cap had flown off with the wind, and there was --”

“No!” Padparadscha practically shouted, apparently forgetting to keep quiet for Steven’s sake. He was awake anyways, but it still caused he and Leggy both to jump. “Why?! Why would they leave her?! James could have reached her in time, maybe, or they could have waited for the next train...”

She had taken back her hand from Leggy’s, only to cover her face and let out a terrible, desperate little sigh. For her part, Leggy seemed rather sad, too, but was keeping it together to comfort the shocked Sapphire.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s just a, ah, story. It wasn’t like they left her on purpose, sometimes these things just… ah, happen?”

Carefully, the red gem leaned forward and tried to remove Padparadscha’s hands from her face, and the orange gem reluctantly allowed it.

“She didn’t have a home, just like them. It just isn’t fair…” She said in a whisper, apparently remembering that Steven was supposedly sleeping about 10 feet away. He watched them quietly, a little pang going off in his chest as he realized how unusual processing something like this must be for the both of them. They’d both been parts of a team for so long, so for Sasha to just be left behind…

“I ah, uh, think you’re right. Um, it’s… not fair. But, maybe…? Maybe it’s for the best? We could… see what happens next? Um, maybe they’ll… maybe they’ll have to go back for her. Or she’ll find a new family! Ah, that could be it!” Voice rising just a tad, Leggy clutched both Padparadscha’s hands in her own and nodded enthusiastically as the orange gem slowly started to catch up and, eventually, smiled in earnest.

After a solid thirty solid seconds, Padparadscha surprised Leggy (and Steven) by leaning forward and kissing her on the forehead.

“Like Ian did to Sasha, right?”

Padparadscha spoke murmured against marron skin, needing a second to measure the shocked Ruby’s reaction before movement was really an option, but all three of the occupants in the room gasped before either gem really had the opportunity to react.

An unexpected burst of light flooded the small seaside house with colors that would shame the sunset, but only for a moment (it was long enough to temporarily yield Steven blind).

A beat of silence passed, and Steven stared down with wide eyes. Sitting on the couch in his living room, looking down at a half-forgotten book, was _Garnet_.

Her hair looked like a fuzzy sweater that had been dyed a thousand shades of orange, ranging from deep crimson to molten gold to pale pink. A torn skirt wrapped her midsection, which was otherwise covered by a standard Homeworld uniform. Her hands were gloved with long white sleeves, and they were noticeably shaking.

In truth, after the beat of stunned silence passed, New Garnet gasped and stood so quickly that she comically toppled right over the coffee table, and Ruby and Padparadscha shot off into different parts of the living room immediately upon impact.

They stared at each other in the most horrified silence either of them could imagine, but thankfully, neither were burdened with breaking it.

“ _You FUSED?!_ ” Steven practically shouted, leaping down and floating between them, head whipping back and forth as he danced on his toes. “Oh my - holy _cookie cats!_ You made a Garnet?!”

“We… fused?” Leggy repeated, looking down at the back of her right hand like she’d never seen it before.

Steven hardly had the patience for their shock. He nodded furiously and rushed over to her, helping her stand. “You fused!”

“We were - I was - Spessartite...Garnet?” Her eyes were wide, unseeing as Steven helped her balance.

“Spess-a-wha?” Steven said, mouth hanging open. “You were a different kind of Garnet?!”

A meek voice interrupted their conversation.

“We… fused?”

Padparadscha ran a hand down the left side of her gown, touching her thigh with a weary smile on her face. “Oh my stars, we _fused_. R-Ruby! We fused!”

“I know!” She shouted back, and Steven yelped when the floor beneath his feet started to burn. “I-I’m so sorry! Pad, I didn’t - I was just so surprised!”

“Spessartite,” was all the orange gem said with a dreamy look on her face. “Wow. That was amazing.”

“It - it _was?!_ No, uh, no no no, I’m so sorry, that was so --”

Steven had moved away from the sizzling Ruby at that point, carefully grabbing Padparadscha beneath the elbow and helping her stand. “It’s Spessar- _tite_ , Steven.”

“It shouldn’t be _anything!”_ Leggy cried, covering her face with her hands and turning away, completely overcome with shame.

“Are you kidding?! Leggy, that was _awesome!_ ” Steven insisted, pointing towards the orange gem. “Look how _happy_ Padparadscha is! That was so _cool_ and --”

“Don’t apologize, Ruby,” the orange gem walked forward and placed a careful hand on the red gem’s shoulder. “I didn’t mind at all. It was… I was so _warm_.”

If not for the absolute marvel in her voice, Leggy probably wouldn’t have been able to turn around and face her. Steven was a bit shocked to see a wet-rim around her eyes.

“Y-you really, didn’t ah, mind?”

Steven put his hands together and rested them against his cheek, his earlier exhaustion completely forgotten as the two slowly began to smile towards each other.

_This is going to be the best anniversary present for Garnet, ever._

“I’ve felt warm on the outside before, but I - we were warm on the _inside_. It was so strange. So… wonderful. Like magic.”

“Magic...?” Leggy parroted, sounding like she didn’t believe it.

A long pause, and Padparadscha leaned forward and gently brushed her lips over the red gem's forehead.

"Magic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little nod to my dear friend [E350tb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/E350tb/pseuds/E350tb) \- he wrote a [Leggy x Padparadscha drabble](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14420958/chapters/33415686) for his [100 Words a Day](https://archiveofourown.org/series/913053) series awhile ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. Here's to Spess!


End file.
